Alright, we're here in 1 Samuel chapter 28 where we think the sermon is why Christians should not celebrate All Saints' Day.
Why Christians should not celebrate All Saints' Day.
And you can come Wednesday if you go through the book of Esther,
and then the last Sunday of the month we go through the book of Psalms,
but since we're right around the time period of All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day,
Halloween, the Day of the Dead, whatever people call it around the world,
they celebrate it a little bit differently,
I think it's kind of appropriate to preach a sermon about this.
Now, quite honestly, in the Philippines, you know, the way they celebrate this holiday
is not as morbid and disgusting as they do in other countries,
it's not as dark, but there is a lot of sin involved
when you're talking about celebrating All Saints' Day.
And so I could preach a sermon, why not celebrate Halloween,
but honestly I'm making it kind of specific to the Philippines,
and why it's so foolish to say you're celebrating All Saints' Day.
Now, we're here in 1 Samuel chapter 28,
and I want you to notice what it says in verse number 3, 1 Samuel 28,
And so what the Bible says in verse number 3 is
Saul basically had pronounced the death penalty on sorcery and wizards
and all of this demonic stuff, necromancy, all of these things,
he pronounced the death penalty on it, just like the Bible said,
he put them away, he got rid of them.
And that is what the Bible's law actually says about this.
This is very serious to God.
This is what you see in verse number 3,
and yet you see the same man, King Saul, who the Spirit came upon him so often,
then you see him celebrating All Saints' Day, so to speak,
by going to doing necromancy and talking to someone who would talk to the dead.
And so I want you to realize this sermon is appropriate for all of us in this room,
because if King Saul, who was once filled with the Spirit,
would backslide to the point that he would try to talk to the dead,
it is possible for a believer to do that,
because we know, and I'm not going to prove it in this sermon,
but we know King Saul is in heaven.
That's what the Bible teaches. He was a believer.
But then eventually at the end of this chapter, or during this chapter,
he's basically trying to talk to the dead and talk to Samuel, which is very wicked,
even though earlier he had put the death penalty on this.
Now, I want you to notice verse number 5 where the Bible reads,
And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid,
and his heart greatly trembled.
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not,
neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
Then said Saul unto his servants,
Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her,
and inquire of her.
And his servant said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.
And so what you see here is that Saul is trying to talk to the dead,
and this is known as the witch at Endor.
Now, when you hear preaching, people will call this woman the witch at Endor.
And so this is a wicked woman who's basically practicing black magic and sorcery and these things,
and she would talk to the dead.
And Saul, who had the death penalty just four verses earlier,
now is seeking out this woman we see here in verse number 7.
Verse 8, And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment.
And he went and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night.
And he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit,
and bring me him up whom I shall name unto thee.
And so Saul disguises himself because he doesn't want people to know who he is.
And he also comes by night because he does not want people to know who he is.
He doesn't want people to know what he's doing.
So he comes at night.
And honestly, what you see throughout the Bible is that wickedness takes place at night.
Those that are drunken are drunken in the night, the Bible says.
See, wicked stuff takes place at night.
The vast majority of murders happen at night where people can't see it.
The vast majority of rapes and drunkenness and sorcery
or anything wicked you're going to see, it takes place in the dark.
It doesn't take place in the light.
And it's not something that people want to be around in the light.
They want to hide from it.
And when people go to sinful places, notice how those places are always places of darkness.
You see that in clubs. You see that in bars.
God is the God of light, and yet you see wickedness and darkness kind of linked together.
And so he's coming at night.
Now in verse 9 it says,
And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done,
how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land.
Wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life to cause me to die?
And so she's saying, King Saul has put the death penalty on this.
She doesn't realize I'm talking to King Saul.
She doesn't realize this is King Saul because he's disguised himself.
She doesn't realize this.
And she's trying not to let it be known who she is.
She has to be very careful because there's the death penalty associated with this.
And King Saul, who brought the death penalty upon it, and everybody knew it,
then he's going to talk to a witch.
Verse number 10,
And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth,
there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.
Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee?
And he said, Bring me up Samuel.
And so Saul wants to talk to Samuel because Saul can't get a hold of God.
And he knows that Samuel was a great man of God,
someone he used to get guidance and wisdom from.
And so he says, I want to talk to Samuel.
Verse 12,
And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice,
and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me?
For thou art Saul.
And she somehow puts the picture together.
She sees Samuel and recognizes him.
She sees Saul.
And then all of a sudden, she's like, Why are you deceiving me?
You're the one who had the death penalty on this.
And now you're asking me to bring up this prophet from the dead to talk to him.
Now, let me say this, that this is a very, very unique story in the Bible.
OK, this is an instance where Saul talks to Samuel, who was dead.
The reason why I'm bringing up this story
is to show you that even a believer could fall into these sins
associated with All Saints Day.
And here throughout the Philippines, there are saved people
that are going to go to the graves with their Catholic relatives.
And they're saved people.
And they're bowing the knee to bail.
That's what you're seeing.
And King Saul did it.
And guess what? In the Philippines, people do the same thing today.
Look, as a saved person, you're not going to win your Catholic relatives
by going to the grave with your dead relatives.
And that is what you see throughout the Philippines.
Christians should have no part of this.
Now, this is a special circumstance where God does allow Saul to talk to Samuel.
This is not a common thing to happen, though.
This is the only story you're going to see in the Bible.
And from time to time, you're going to see that God allows a very unique situation to take place.
We're going to look at Luke chapter 16 later on in the sermon.
Look, Luke 16 is not a normal situation
because usually people in heaven and in hell don't have conversations with each other.
And so I'd be very careful to look at that story and say,
well, that means everybody in heaven can talk to everybody in hell.
That's ridiculous.
God's giving you a special glimpse of hell.
This is a very unique situation.
Verse 13,
And the king said unto her, Be not afraid, for what sawest thou?
And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
And he said unto her, What form is he of?
And she said, An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle.
And Saul perceived that it was Samuel.
And he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself.
Now, turn in your Bible to 2 Samuel chapter 12.
2 Samuel 12.
What we're seeing is Saul is partaking in a very wicked practice here
as he's trying to talk to the dead and he's actually successful.
And she's shocked by this, that he's actually successful to talk to Samuel.
And she realizes who he is.
This is a very wicked practice.
He said, What did that woman normally do?
Well, she probably normally talked to devils and demons.
That's what probably normally took place.
Now, look, when it comes to these people that talk to the dead,
there's going to be a mixture of them that are faking it for purposes of money.
Those that are actually talking to devils, devils, ghosts, whatever you want to call it.
I mean, devils, but people think there's ghosts out there.
They're actually talking to devils.
No matter how much they look like your grandmother who died, you're talking to a devil.
Now, there's a mixture of both these things.
And quite honestly, probably with most of these people, sometimes they fake it
and sometimes they're actually doing the same thing.
Kind of like with people that speak in tongues.
I have no doubt that TD Jake speaks in tongues from time to time.
But I've also seen him on YouTube just blabber like an idiot
and it's so obvious he's faking it.
But I have no doubt that he's been filled with many devils before and spoken in tongues.
And so honestly, this person who was practicing necromancy, talking to the dead,
probably sometimes they're faking it just for the purposes of money.
And sometimes they actually get to talk to devils and demons.
Look, this is not something to mess with because it's not just a game.
It's reality.
Look, when we're talking about talking to devils, this is something that takes place.
People get possessed today and this sort of stuff, Christians should have nothing to do with.
They shouldn't be going to YouTube, watching videos, watching movies, playing video games or anything associated with this.
It's very dark and it's very wicked.
Now notice what it says in 2 Samuel chapter 12.
What we saw though in 1 Samuel 28 was the death penalty on it.
It's something pretty serious to God if you see the death penalty associated with sorcery and talking to the dead.
And I'm going to mix various things.
I'm going to talk about magic tonight and all of these different things
because these things go hand in hand, okay?
But what you're seeing here is this is very serious to God.
Now in 2 Samuel chapter 12, the first point we have tonight is this, that the saints will not return.
The saints will not return.
When we say saints, we're talking about saved people.
Now look, the Catholic Church has a different understanding of what a saint is,
but in general they'll sort of agree, well, we're talking about saved people.
We're not talking about people in hell. We're talking about people in heaven.
Look, everybody in heaven is staying in heaven and they're not coming back at all.
They're not coming back.
And the Bible teaches this that the saints will not return.
Notice what it says in 2 Samuel 12 verse 15.
And Nathan departed unto his house and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David and it was very sick.
David therefore besought God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the earth.
So David is scared that his child's going to die
and David is beseeching God and he's fasting, he's laying upon the earth, he's praying to God
and everybody around him sees this and once his child ends up dying,
they're afraid he's just going to lose it and not be able to take it because he was fasting and mourning.
I'm sure he was weeping, he was crying out to God, he was pleading.
Verse 19, but when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead.
Therefore David said unto his servants, is the child dead? And they said he is dead.
Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel
and came into the house of the Lord and worshiped.
Then he came to his own house and when he required, they set bread before him and he did eat.
Now David was a man who knew how to control his emotions pretty well.
Because I promise you David was grieving at this time when his child died.
Now obviously what David did was wicked being with Bathsheba and he has this child
and he realizes what he did was wrong. Nathan had already rebuked him.
But he plays the man as the Bible says.
And sometimes in life when you're going through major storms in your life, especially as men,
the Bible says you play the man.
Basically you control your emotions and you do not let things on the exterior destroy you.
People allow their emotions to destroy their lives and all of us do it from time to time.
But here you see an instance where David was a man who could control his emotions.
And especially as men, we need to be the ones that are able to do that in life.
Verse number 21, then said his servants on to him,
What thing is this that thou hast done?
Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was yet alive,
but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept,
for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live?
But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast?
Can I bring him back again?
Remember we're talking about saints, people that go to heaven.
Can I bring him back again?
I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
What's that saying?
Those in heaven are not coming back.
Those in heaven are there forever.
Look, I don't care how much you go to those graves and pray for your dead relatives,
even if they were believers.
Even if they were saved people, they're not coming back.
He says, Can I bring him back again?
He's saying no. It's a rhetorical question.
I shall go to him, because David was saved.
And this also proves babies that die do go to heaven,
because his son he knew was in heaven, his child he knew was in heaven.
I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
Why? Because what the Bible teaches is, once you go to heaven, you're there forever.
Who would want to come back to earth?
I mean, who would honestly?
I mean, our lives, we love going soul winning, we love the things of God,
and yet, you know what, I feel guilty every single week of my life,
because you commit sins, you do things that are wrong,
and boy, what a day it's going to be when we can put off this sinful flesh and be in heaven.
And why are we here? Because it's more needful for us to be here,
and to do something for the Lord.
But why in the world would someone who's up in heaven,
especially if they lived a long life, why would they want to come?
I've seen people that are at the end of their lives,
and they're honestly basically excited to go to heaven.
And generally I'm talking about people whose husband or wife has already passed away,
but I've met people out soul winning, and they're coming to the end of their life.
I met somebody once in Pennsylvania who had terminal cancer.
He was dying, and he was a very happy person.
I was talking to him for about 15 minutes at the door,
and he was saying, and he was a saved person, I was trying to encourage him,
and he was talking about how I'm going home to be with the Lord,
and he's a saved person.
And look, why would a saved person want to come here where you have so many trials and problems in your life?
Why would you want to come back to earth?
And the Bible teaches they will not come back.
Turn to Luke 16, Luke 16.
And you have to understand, the saints are not going to return.
And so when you're celebrating All Saints Day, and you're saying,
hey, I'm going to leave this food at the grave,
and then somehow the saints are just going to somehow just come up and eat that food,
it's like, what in the world?
I mean, that's so bizarre, that's so weird,
and it's completely unbiblical.
Where are you seeing this in the Bible, that they're going to come back,
whether spiritually or physically, it's like, look, they're not coming back to eat that food.
You better put something down there that's not that expensive, because you're wasting your money.
They're not going to be eating that food.
And look, this is something that's permeated in religions and societies around the world.
You can go back to ancient Egypt,
and they somehow believe in this weird sort of afterlife,
where they're kind of half alive, half dead,
and religions around the world believe this.
You go to houses that are Buddhist houses,
and there's not a lot of Buddhists here in the Philippines,
but you knock on Buddhist houses in America,
and you'll see that rotten food up there at the top.
Why? Because their relatives are going to eat that rotten food.
And you see that banana that's been out there, and it's rotting,
and it's like, dude, just throw that in the garbage.
What are you doing?
And you see some other religions as well.
I think the shamans might be one of the other ones.
And they have this really weird, morbid view of stuff.
And look, those that are physically dead are physically dead forever.
And those that are up in heaven, they're not coming back spiritually or physically.
Luke 16, verse 27.
Here's the story of the rich man in Lazarus and the rich man who has gone to hell.
And this is a special circumstance where those from heaven are talking to those from hell.
This is a special circumstance.
One man in hell is talking to two people up in paradise or heaven,
and it's always been paradise, always been heaven, where they went.
But notice what it says in verse 27.
Then he said,
What is he saying?
Hey, can you send Lazarus, can you send him to talk to my brothers,
to my father's house, to my relatives?
That's what he's saying.
He's like, can you send him back to talk to my relatives?
For I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
Abraham saith unto them, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
And so Abraham says, no, they've got the Bible.
How do people get saved?
Through the word of God.
And if they have the word of God, they don't need somebody to rise from the dead for them in order for them to believe.
Okay?
And so as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
That's the sign that God has given us.
And once Jesus rose again, did everybody believe?
No.
Those that were already saved believed in the true Messiah.
And the reality is, though, that just someone coming from the dead is not going to get him saved.
But the reality is nobody, no saint, because Lazarus is up in heaven,
is going to come back and do that.
It's not going to happen.
Verse 30, and he said, nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
Okay?
When he says repent, he's saying that they're going to change their mind,
because it says in the next verse, neither will they be persuaded.
But it says in verse 31, and he said unto them, if they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
They won't repent or be persuaded or change their mind, even if they saw one rise from the dead.
And look, when Jesus rose again, people didn't believe.
The vast majority, even those that knew he rose again physically,
just denied the fact that he was a savior.
They denied salvation, even though it was clearly evident.
And what are you seeing here?
Lazarus is not coming back.
And the whole concept of All Saints Day doesn't really make a whole lot of sense,
because the whole concept is you're there to somehow talk or commune to your dead relatives.
You go to these graves, and it's this mass necromancy thing
where you're trying to talk to your dead relatives somehow.
You're there with them spiritually or in some metaphysical world.
That's ridiculous.
The saints you see throughout the Bible, you saw it in 2 Samuel.
You see it in Luke 16, that the baby of David is not coming back,
and Lazarus is not coming back.
Why?
Because when people go to heaven, they're there forever.
And so if you go to the graves to celebrate All Saints Day with your Catholic relatives,
then look, let me tell you something, you're partaking in this necromancy thing.
You say, I don't believe in it, then why are you doing it?
What's the purpose of doing it?
And look, I know saved people who do this.
Now as far as I know, no one at this church does.
I hope nobody at this church does.
But I know of saved people that do this.
And look, it's very wicked to do that, because you don't have any fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, the Bible says.
And that's what you're seeing here, and it doesn't even make sense
because of the fact that saints are not going to come back.
Now turn to Deuteronomy 18.
Deuteronomy chapter 18.
And the second point we have is this, that any communication with the dead is demonic.
Any communication with the dead is demonic.
And you have to understand that since the saints cannot come back,
and neither can those in hell either.
Those in hell, they're not going to come back either.
Any communication you're doing with the dead,
you're not actually talking to your grandmother and your grandfather.
See, look, I doubt anybody in this room,
but if any of you have experience in your life
when you're a child of somehow talking to a dead relative,
you talk to a devil.
That is what you talk to.
And I've heard people tell stories, and they're not lying either,
that they talked to their dead husband.
They said they came and I talked to my dead husband.
They talked to a devil.
That is what took place.
There's a reason why this belief of ghosts is so out there
that so many people have seen ghosts.
You say, why? Because they talked to devils.
That's what took place.
I have no doubt it looks like your brother that passed away.
I have no doubt that it looks like your sister that passed away.
I have no doubt that it looks like your father or your grandmother that passed away.
Who you talk to is actually a devil pretending to be like that person.
And look, there are things out here that are like this.
Now notice what it says in Deuteronomy 18 verses 10 and 11.
Deuteronomy 18 verses 10 and 11.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter
to pass through the fire, or that useth divination,
or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
This is referring to all these demonic practices.
And I want you to realize these things are intertwined with false religion.
And the religion of Roman Catholicism has sorcery mixed in with this
because All Saints Day is a very pagan holiday filled with sorcery.
This is very wicked.
It's not the only religion, but no doubt the Roman Catholicism
has a lot of really weird, weird beliefs that you could list in these verses here.
A sorcery and his really wicked, wicked practices.
Or a charmer or a consultor with familiar spirits.
Or a wizard or a necromancer.
Now I want you to notice these things are being linked together.
A necromancer is one who talks to the dead,
but the verse before talked about witches.
Because all these things are intertwined.
People that practice black magic, they're going to be into all of these things.
Any communication is something that God condemns.
And what you're actually doing is you're talking to demonic,
the devil, his devils, his minions, these forces.
This is not something to mess with.
Now look, these sorts of things people find very interesting.
These movies make a lot of money.
These things make great attractions.
You have these haunted houses at Halloween.
I don't know if they really have this here.
I know they have it some because I've seen signs,
but it's a big attraction in the U.S.,
these haunted houses where people dress up as witches.
Look, these are things God has the death penalty on.
This is not something to mess with.
Now, I remember in West Virginia, there's this attraction.
It's called the Moundsville State Prison.
Now, the Moundsville State Prison was a famous prison
because a lot of people had been murdered and killed there.
And it was turned.
It's no longer a prison. Now it's like a tourist attraction.
Now look, I'm confessing my faults one to another
because I did go there for a tourist attraction one time over a decade ago.
And so what you do is basically you stay overnight there.
And what you do is you stay with your friends
because honestly otherwise it's meant to be like a haunted house sort of thing.
You stay there and a lot of weird things have happened there.
But you can actually see pictures that people have had
of this famous sort of ghost of this man who had lost his arm or whatever
and who had been killed there.
And you see him in pictures all the time and it's not fake.
You say, what is it?
It's somehow this devil that is portraying himself as this man.
That's what I believe.
It's not something to be messed with.
Look, this stuff is not fake.
Now it's not literally this man
because we saw that saints aren't coming back
and we know those in hell aren't coming back and living as ghosts.
So are just millions and millions of people lying
that have told you they've seen ghosts?
I know people that have seen ghosts before.
Now is it possible that some people that have seen ghosts
were just on heavy doses of drugs and just hallucinated?
I'm sure that takes place from time to time.
But that also is associated with sorcery.
But let me tell you something.
I've had plenty of people who have told me
and they're always embarrassed to tell you.
They don't admit to you.
It's when you know somebody pretty well
then they'll kind of tell you like, hey, you know,
when I was, you know, a couple years ago I saw my dead husband.
I know people that have told me this.
Now I have no doubt that they saw something.
I don't believe that all those people that have told me that are lying.
Now the reason why they're embarrassed
is because they know people won't believe them.
But quite honestly I don't believe them that they saw their dead husband.
But I do believe they saw something.
Look, when you look at all these false religions that have started,
how does it always happen?
An angel of light came to me.
I mean, Galatians is so applicable in today's world
because it's always some angel.
Though an angel from heaven preached any other gospel.
But that is how all these religions start.
All these cults, all these weird religions.
Are they all just faking it?
Or did they actually see something?
Quite honestly, usually I would say they saw something.
Usually I believe a devil actually came to them.
And here's the thing.
It's probably going to be one of the chief men of the devil,
if not the devil himself.
Because starting a false religion that has a billion people worldwide,
you know, Islam to follow it.
Look, that's something where Muhammad was greatly used by the devil.
It could have been the devil himself.
I don't believe that they're all lying.
This stuff, these demonic forces,
this is not stuff for you to meditate on and to watch movies
and to watch pictures.
This stuff is wrong.
Now I want you to see our third point is this.
It says, do not learn their practice.
So the first thing is saints are not coming back.
Any communication with the dead is demonic.
Number three, don't learn the practice of the heathen.
Deuteronomy 18 verse 9.
Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 9.
When thou art coming to the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
And so what he says is, don't learn to do these abominations in wicked things.
This is something that believers could actually learn.
We learn it today by watching movies and listening to music
and watching TV that has these things.
Now in the past, there would be various countries
and they basically would have a religion of that country.
They'd have various gods that they worshiped.
In today's world, for the most part, religion spread worldwide.
Our world is very much intermingled together.
And through YouTube and things like that, we know about Hinduism, Buddhism,
all these different religions.
They're all kind of intertwined in today's world.
But it used to be kind of one country would have some heathen practice
and basically you were supposed to avoid the practices of those countries.
That's why sometimes God would destroy an entire country,
destroy the people there, because he didn't want to have any remnant
where they'd learn these heathen wicked practices.
And these really wicked societies that are doing these things,
they deserve the death penalty for according to the Bible.
He didn't want that to be attached to his people.
And in today's world, we need to be very careful
not to allow this stuff to attach to us.
Do not learn the way of the heathen.
Verse 12, for all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.
Now I want you to notice in verse 12,
he doesn't say that what they're doing is an abomination.
He says all that do these things are an abomination.
He's saying the people that do this are an abomination.
He's not saying what they did was an abomination.
The people that do this are an abomination.
And if you as a Christian are going to somehow partake in these demonic forces,
you are an abomination to God.
That is what the Bible is saying.
It says, and because of these abominations,
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.
And these nations which thou shalt possess
hearkened unto observers of times and unto diviners.
But as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
And he's saying that every nation, they did these things.
They hearkened unto observers of times and diviners.
Every nation, their false religions, they are doing these demonic practices.
He does not want his people to get involved with this.
Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2.
1 Timothy chapter 2.
And when it comes to our country, we are an 80% Catholic country,
and All Saints Day is very demonic.
Praying to the saints, that's demonic.
Look, Peter was a great man of God.
Paul the Apostle was a great man of God.
And guess what? It's foolish to pray to them.
They're already in heaven.
It doesn't matter how great of a man somebody was, they're already in heaven.
Peter's in heaven, Paul's in heaven, Padre Pio's in hell.
Praying to any of them is wicked.
They're not coming from heaven, and they're not coming back from hell.
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5.
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 that Bob reads.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
You say, Brother Stuckey, there's one mediator, but there's also a mediatrix.
One mediator, one mediatrix named Mary.
Look, there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
And let me tell you something, praying to Mary is demonic.
It's devilish. It's wicked.
See, I didn't realize Roman Catholicism was mixed with so much sorcery.
You didn't realize it because of the fact it's so normal and common to you that it doesn't feel that bad.
It's sorcery. Praying to the dead is wicked.
Praying to Mary or any of these people, there's only one mediator.
It's foolish. It's foolish enough to go to confession and have some man forgive your sins.
But praying to someone who's already dead?
I mean, what in the world?
They're not coming back, and when you're doing this, if you have any sort of experience, that's a demonic experience.
You're actually going to be talking to a devil if you happen to talk to anyone.
That's not something any Christian should be involved in.
The Bible says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
Now, how do we as Christians do this? Turn to 1 John 2.
Now, you might say, Brother Stuckey, I don't practice sorcery or black magic.
I don't have this big pot and these potions and stuff like that.
But I would submit to you that sorcery is a lot more prevalent in our society than you realize.
For one, praying to Mary, that's involved with this necromancy.
Praying to the saints, so that it's all throughout our country.
You say, but it doesn't seem evil.
It doesn't matter whether it seems evil or not.
It's something that is evil, according to the Bible.
But the Bible says in 1 John 2, verse 15,
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Now, that does not mean that they're not saved.
It just means you don't have the love of God.
Look, saved people love the world all the time.
It's called being a worldly Christian.
Verse 16,
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world.
See, there's certain things that our flesh lusts after.
There's certain things that our eyes lust after.
And these things are not of God.
They're of the world.
Now, this is written to believers, and these are saved people where he says,
Do not love the world.
And so I want to talk to you real quickly here
about some various ways where we could learn the way of the heathen.
How could we learn this sorcery in our lives?
Well, look at some of the big movies that are out there.
Now, look, I'll tell you, I don't really know all the big movies that have come out in the last years.
I know Avengers is something people talk about a lot, so obviously that's a big movie.
But some of the movies that I know, one of the big ones was Harry Potter.
Harry Potter is sorcery.
You say, Brother Stuckey, there's good magic and there's bad magic.
Isn't that what people say to defend Harry Potter?
I mean, there's the white magic and there's the black magic.
There's basically the Jesus magic and there's basically the devil magic.
No, it's all black magic. It's all wicked.
You say, isn't Harry Potter the good guy?
No, he's a sorcerer who should have been put to death.
That's what the Bible says.
There's no good magic in the Bible.
You don't see that. It's wicked.
And Harry Potter is just sorcery and necromancy and wizards.
Look, that is wicked. It's not of God.
You say, but it didn't really feel that wicked. There was no nudity.
Well, you know what? Sorcery gives you the death penalty.
That's actually higher on the list.
That's even worse. You get the death penalty for it.
That's what the Bible teaches.
What about Lord of the Rings?
You say, Lord of the Rings?
That series was written by a Christian.
Well, first off, no it wasn't. It was written by a Catholic.
But as far as I know, I could be wrong.
I think J.R. Tolkien was a Catholic. I'm pretty sure.
I'd have to double check. It's going to be a clip like you were wrong about this.
Well, he wasn't saved. I'll tell you that.
But Lord of the Rings, once again you have good magic and bad magic.
It's all evil. It's all wicked.
And see, what the devil likes to do is make you feel like there's good magic
to kind of slowly bring you into doing dark magic.
It starts always with something small.
When it comes to somebody committing adultery, adultery doesn't happen overnight.
First you allow it to be something that you lust after in your heart
because you allowed your eyes to see it
and because you put yourself in position for your eyes to see it.
David put himself in position to see Bathsheba
and he lusted in his heart, then he committed adultery.
That's the way it starts. It always starts with something small and becomes worse.
And you say, white magic, it's not so bad.
Look, it's all evil. And Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings,
those are the worst movies you could watch.
This sorcery is something that's the death penalty in the Bible.
Now, I'm not for watching any of those Hollywood movies,
but those are the worst ones you could watch.
Lord of the Rings, it's a Christian movie.
It's the worst thing that you could watch.
Star Wars, the good force, the bad force, the force in the dark side,
which is basically Hinduism, but it's really not much different
than what we're talking about, the good magic and bad magic.
This is sorcery. This is not something that Christians should partake in.
And look, I've seen a lot of these movies.
I grew up, I watched Star Wars, I loved it when I was a kid,
and it was very entertaining to the eyes.
That's the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.
I'm not saying that you don't find it entertaining.
What I'm saying is it doesn't matter if your flesh finds it entertaining.
You don't watch it. Why?
This is demonic. This is sorcery. This has the death penalty.
And the worst one of these that I'm going to name is the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe.
That's worse than all of those. You say, why?
Because it blasphemes Jesus Christ. Why?
Because the lion dies to save everybody else.
Look, and it's supposedly written by a Christian.
That is the worst one of them because now you're mixing Christianity in
with good magic, bad magic. That's wicked.
And that's what the movie is. It's supposed to be kind of like this Christian sorcery, basically.
They won't call it sorcery because the lion symbolizes Jesus Christ.
That's ridiculous. Why are you trying to have somebody symbolize Jesus Christ?
Why would you make a movie about that?
And it's once again this magic that takes place.
And look, I read those books when I was a kid.
I've read most of the series, if not all of the series.
It's all of this black magic.
And you can call it good magic, bad magic. No, it's all bad.
I never saw any of the Twilight movies,
but I'm assuming they're sorcery. It's like a vampire.
I mean, it's this demonic stuff, whatever's involved in the movie.
I never read the books or saw the movies.
This is not something any Christian should be involved in.
You say, Brother Stuckey, the movies are bad, but what about books?
Because, well, most of these movies that I named,
all of them except Star Wars came from books first.
I've heard this kind of idea that, hey, it's wrong to watch the movies
because they're of the world, but you could read the same book about that movie and it's okay.
I don't understand that. I don't understand what the difference is.
I can see that watching the movie might be worse
because you're allowing your eyes to see something rather than just thinking about it,
but that doesn't make it okay if it's talking about the same sorts of things.
Any books with this black magic sort of stuff are not books that you should read.
Now, I agree there's books out there that are good books to read, but let me tell you something.
Anything involved with Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, whatever the common books are now,
anything with magic, this is wicked, and this is how it enters into your heart.
You don't think it's that bad.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I think the death penalty on sorcery is a little bit too harsh.
Well, you need to get your heart right because that's God's law.
That's what God says, and if God's law was instituted today,
it would be the death penalty on sorcery, and you know what would probably take place?
We wouldn't have 70 million people in this country spending their time in the graves on the weekend.
We'd see them just spending time with family at home because of the fact this something was very demonic.
Look, Saul was embarrassed to do this in public because he didn't want people to know about it.
People are not embarrassed really about it today, though. Why?
It's so common in our society. It was only a little bit in that society.
It's all over this country, though.
What about music? I don't know music that has sorcery. I don't listen to music of the world.
I don't know who the bands are or whatever, but I'm sure with a lot of this music, you have sorcery there.
Honestly, another big way, bigger probably than music and books, is through video games.
In video games, there is a lot of sorcery mixed in.
Let me tell you something. Any video game that has sorcery, you should get rid of as a Christian.
When I was a kid, the two video games that were really big on this were The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy.
Now, I don't know if they have modern day versions of that. Legend of Zelda and whatever the system.
Xbox, is that still a system? Does anybody know? Nobody knows. Final Fantasy.
I don't know if they have that for Xbox or Xbox 20 or whatever it is now. PlayStation 100. I don't know.
But Legend of Zelda is just basically magic that's being performed. That's wicked.
Final Fantasy, there's all this magic that's being performed. No Christian should have any part to do with this.
Sorcery is something that has the death penalty on it.
And it seems so innocent on a video game. Oh, I just used this potion to kill this person.
But see, when you let it in at a small stage, that's when it starts to become bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
It always starts off small.
Yeah, I understand you're not in your backyard making some potion and doing some voodoo or whatever,
but it starts off with something small and once as a video game it gets in there,
you're going to react and say, well, the Bible is too harsh for putting the death penalty on it.
King of Saul was just a little bit out of line. The Bible, the law of God was the death penalty for sorcery.
And if you think that's too harsh, it means you need to get your heart right
because of the fact that you've allowed this to enter into your heart and your mind and your eyes.
That's the reality. And the video games I saw growing up, a lot of them had magic involved.
You say, why did all those video games have magic?
Because they're trying to make a video game that sells well and our flesh enjoys this stuff.
Look, yeah, I love Star Wars as a kid. My flesh enjoyed it.
Now, look, I was not an RPG sort of guy, so I wasn't really into those video games.
I like Super Mario Kart, Super Mario Brothers.
But look, those games are popular because people like magic and stuff like that.
And you know what? There was a video game I did play as a kid that did have a lot of sorcery involved.
There's this video game series. It was on computers as opposed to the PlayStation and things such as that.
It was called King's Quest and it was a very popular series a long time ago.
And you basically have all these different worlds, King's Quest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
And you're basically in a different scenario in each one.
And a lot of them had a lot of sorcery mixed in and magic.
But the one that I remember really liking was, and this was really bad graphics, but the gameplay was fun.
And you basically work for a wizard in his house. That's how it starts.
And so you work for a wizard and your goal is to try to kill the wizard.
So you got to make this potion.
And in order to do that, you have to escape the house at the right time and gather various things.
You gather a feather from a bird and all these different things.
And then you go down to the secret cabinet downstairs.
And if he catches you, he'll kill you, which is usually what happens.
It's a very difficult game.
And basically you make this potion and at the right time you put it in like with his food or something like that.
And he ends up dying.
And you're able to escape the castle permanently.
And then you move on to the other parts of the world.
It's a very long, very difficult game.
And I remember I was in college, though, and I had played this game as a kid.
And I remember having fond memories of this game.
See, aren't there things in life that you basically have fond memories of,
but they're things that you probably shouldn't be doing today?
Look, I mentioned it, I think I was talking to Brother Dustin earlier today,
that my wife and I, when we were going to Pangasinan,
on the bus they were playing Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of their songs.
And Creedence Clearwater Revival, I have a lot of fond memories
because my dad played their greatest hits every single day.
Their whole album.
So like for an hour of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
As a kid, it would get on my nerves from time to time
because even though I liked the music, I was like, every single day, it's like, oh, not again.
Every single day, literally.
But you know, it's been a long time since I heard that music.
So when I heard them playing that song, it brings back a lot of fuzzy memories.
Why? Because I remember spending time with my dad.
Now, I'm not telling you you should just extinguish those memories.
It just is what it is. Those memories are there.
They're kind of hard to get rid of.
I am saying you shouldn't listen to that music today, though.
And just because I had fuzzy memories of King's Quest, I shouldn't be playing it today.
And my friend in college, he actually found this where they had put it into the PlayStation or something
and he bought it for me because I had talked about enjoying it so much as a kid.
My friend was really into video games.
And I remember him handing that to me.
And I remember being so excited, like, oh, I remember playing this.
And I remember then starting to play it for a couple minutes.
And then I'm like, there's a wizard in this.
And I was like, man, I shouldn't be doing this.
And I never played that game ever again.
I say, why?
Because, yeah, I have fond memories about it.
But that's something, when I became a man, I put away childish things.
And let me tell you something.
Anything that involves sorcery and witchcraft, this is something that no Christian should have a part of.
And let me tell you something.
God's people ought to be very peculiar.
And you say, Brother Stuckey, that means I'm going to have to draw a really hard line against worldliness in my life.
Well, you need to draw that hard line because the death penalty is associated with sorcery.
Now, I'm not saying playing a video game, you deserve to get the death penalty.
I'm not saying that.
But what I am saying is that those that are practicing sorcery get the death penalty.
And then it shouldn't be so fun to you to play that character that's doing the sorcery.
That's something that no Christian should be involved in.
And I don't care how entertaining Harry Potter is or Lord of the Rings.
No Christian should have any part of those movies because they're demonic.
Now, turn to 2 Corinthians 5.
2 Corinthians 5.
You see, you have to understand what happens is that we see these things and they become really common to us.
And we don't even think anything of it.
I know somebody who goes to Verity Baptist Church.
He's from Romania.
And he's a very devoted member.
He's been there for a long time.
He was there before I ever got there.
He's devoted soul winner, him and his family.
And he's from Romania.
And he came to the US.
And I remember the first time he was around for Halloween, he told me that he was like,
what in the world are all these people doing?
Because in America, people have these graves in their backyard.
They have these zombies and witches.
And he's like, what in the world?
I say, why?
Because they didn't practice Halloween growing up in Romania.
And he looked at it and said, what is wrong with these people?
I mean, just imagine here if there was just one person practicing things like this.
One person going to the graves and just praying to their relatives.
You'd be like, what is that person doing?
That is weird.
But because 90% of this country, because I would say every Catholic probably does this.
Plus, at least half of the non-Catholics probably do it.
And so what you're seeing is almost everybody in this country does it.
So, hey, it's not a big deal because everybody does it.
It doesn't matter if it's common.
That doesn't make it normal.
Look, sodomy is becoming very common in our country.
It's not normal though.
And so just because sorcery is common,
doesn't mean you should have anything to do with it.
But the last point I want to tell you about tonight is this.
You have to understand that the saints, they want you to live godly.
You have to understand that somebody who's dead that was a believer,
they are no longer fighting the flesh.
They are up in heaven.
I remember, you're in 2 Corinthians 5, but let me just say this.
I remember I was at the funeral of my friend back in college who tragically drowned.
He was 20 years old when he died back in 2008.
I think it was August 2008.
And I remember just some of his friends talking about him, telling stories and stuff like that.
And I used to go soul winning with this guy a couple times every week.
He was my soul winning partner.
And my friend was a great guy, but he was still struggling with some of the worldly music.
He never justified it though.
He always admitted, hey, I should not be listening to this, but right now I can't give it up.
It was kind of an idol in his life.
It was the one thing he was hanging on to.
But I remember someone else who was saved, but not really that spiritual saying,
oh, I really want to start listening to this music.
It reminds me of him.
And I'm just thinking in my head, this is the last sort of music that he wants you to listen to right now.
He's not battling the flesh.
And if you want to remember your friend that passed away,
what she should be doing is singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, not listening to rock music.
Because he's not interested in that anymore.
And it's like, you know, why are you going to try to remember that and just do the things that they struggle with?
Look, the saints up in heaven, they want you to live godly.
2 Corinthians 5 verse 17,
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
Now, does this mean that when you get saved, you're going to be perfect because all things are become new?
No. We still struggle with sin.
What it's saying is you're indwelled with the spirit of God.
You have the flesh and you have the spirit.
These things will battle and battle and battle every day of your life.
And let me tell you something.
If you go through a day and there is no battle, that's because you're allowing the flesh to do all of the decisions.
You must battle the flesh every single day.
They will battle and battle and battle.
And right when you die, you have no desire for anything sinful anymore.
You no longer fight that battle.
The saints up in heaven.
Look, if you've got relatives that have died and went to be with the Lord, let me tell you something.
The saints up in heaven, they want you to live godly.
They don't want you to live sinful lives.
Turn to Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5.
The last thing a saint would want you to do is go to their grave and pray to them.
And put food there for them to eat.
That's the last thing a saint is going to want you to do.
That's why it's demonic and it's ridiculous.
You're not going to talk to them anymore.
That's the last thing they would want you to do.
Galatians 5 verse 16.
This I say, then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary to one or the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
And so what we see here is the flesh and the Spirit, they will battle and battle and battle.
And because of this battle, sometimes you just can't do the things that you want to do.
Look, you know, when you're in church, all of us right now in our minds and hearts,
we're saying, man, I want to just read the Bible more and go soul winning more and memorize the Bible more.
But then when you go home and everything, and then basically sometimes that feeling just kind of fades away.
And even though your Spirit wants to do what's right, and when you're in church,
you're filled with the Spirit, you're living for God, and you really want to do what's right.
But what takes place is you go home and oftentimes you just can't do the things that you want to do.
Okay? This battle takes place, but the saints up in heaven, they don't struggle with that.
Turn to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. This will be the last place we look. Ephesians 4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse number 22.
The Bible says that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
And the Bible says we need to put off the old man. It says in verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
You say, Brother Stuckey, how often do we do this? Every single day.
Daily, you put off the old man. Daily. Throughout the day, you're putting off the old man.
Every single day, you make the decision, I'm not going to do what my flesh wants to do.
I'm going to do what the spirit wants to do. Verse 24.
And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Every single day, we put on the new man that wants to do what's right.
But the old man wants to do what's wrong.
Here's what you need to understand.
That when you choose to put off the old man over and over and over again, eventually those areas that you really struggled with,
you're not going to struggle with them anymore.
Now, I'm not saying you're going to be sinless, but let me tell you something.
I don't have any interest in listening to Aerosmith today.
Aerosmith was my favorite rock band. I had like 12 CDs or something. I had like every CD.
They're my favorite rock band. They're my favorite type of music. I love listening to Aerosmith's music.
I don't listen to Aerosmith. I don't have an interest to listen to Aerosmith.
And quite honestly, when I hear them every once in a while, when you're out and about or on the radio,
I don't really feel myself desiring that music.
Now, here's the thing, though. That's because 14 years ago, I quit listening to that.
Now, right when I quit listening to it, guess what I still desired? I still desired to listen to Aerosmith.
It took me a while before I no longer was desiring that, but when you put off something for long enough,
it'd be like, for example, if you go on a diet and you cut out all sugar from your life, okay, or you quit drinking coffee.
The first day you do it, you're going to still have that desire.
You quit smoking, hey, guess what? You're going to desire to smoke cigarettes, okay?
But as time goes by, guess what happens? That desire is going to get less and less and less.
I'm not saying that could never creep back into your life, but the desire gets less and less and less and less.
And she said, Brother Stuckey, some of these things I struggle with.
Maybe there's movies or video games or something where there's this sorcery involved.
Well, look, you know what the Bible says. I've shown you what the Bible says.
I've taught you what the Bible says. You know that you shouldn't have anything to do with that.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
So instead of basically saying, I'm going to do what my flesh wants to do now,
why don't you just decide to put it off now, and a year from now you can say,
hey, I don't even desire to play that video game anymore.
I don't desire to watch that movie anymore.
Look, over time, that is what takes place. I loved Star Wars when I was a kid.
Look, I don't have any temptation to watch Star Wars today.
You say, why? Because I put that off over a decade ago.
And as time goes by, you won't have that desire.
But look, this is not something for any Christian to mess with.
Now, let me say this, that I've thought about this before,
that one day when my parents pass away, I have certain things I know about my parents,
certain movies they like, certain music.
And look, if those movies came on, I'm sure my flesh would have sentimental feelings.
You remember good memories of your parents.
My dad's favorite movie growing up was Field of Dreams.
And it's a movie where basically this guy gets to see his father.
Basically, he's talking to ghosts in the movie, so it's pretty wicked.
But basically, he's talking to his dad who passed away.
They got in a fight. He never got to say goodbye to him.
It's like a baseball movie, but he gets to talk to his dad and play catch with him one last time.
And look, you know what? I'm sure that one day when my dad passed away,
I'm sure that movie could bring back sentimental feelings.
But you've just got to decide to not give in to the lust of the flesh.
Because that's something you did in the past, but when you became a man, you put away childish things.
And Christians should have nothing to do with anything involving ghosts, or demons, or devils,
or All Saints Day, or anything associated with this.
Halloween, whatever you want to call it.
It's demonic. It's not of God.
And no one at our church should be going to the graves with their Catholic relatives
to participate in necromancy and a wicked holiday.
And look, I'm sure that most of you in this room at one time in your life, you probably did that.
Let me tell you something. You're saved. You know what the Word of God says.
No Christian should be participating in All Saints Day. Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today in your house.
And I ask you to help us apply this sermon to our lives.
Help us to make sure we take a strong stand not to give in, or to be watered down,
or to try to meet our Catholic relatives halfway by celebrating All Saints Day, God.
That is not going to get your Catholic relatives saved.
What's going to get them saved is when you're taking a strong stand on the things you believe,
and you take every opportunity to preach the gospel, God.
And let us never feel like we need to compromise to win souls to the Lord,
because that's not what you teach. That's not reality.
The reality is we can still stick to our fundamentals and what we believe,
and still win those people to the Lord when we put in the effort, God.
I ask you to help none of us in any way participate in All Saints Day,
but also just any sort of necromancy or sorcery or anything that we're allowing in our lives, God.
Help us to realize this is a very serious sin.
And in the Bible, you put the death penalty on sorcery.
Help none of us in our church, none of us in this room.
Help none of us participate in these wicked practices.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.